<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Lost kids by Mars001</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016819">Lost kids</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars001/pseuds/Mars001'>Mars001</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Armin thinks Levi is a good hugger, Based on a couple of canon facts, Child Armin Arlert, Child Eren Yeager, Child Mikasa Ackerman, Ema are 8-9 years old in beginning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fall of wall Maria happens earlier, Fluff, Gen, Hange Zoë &amp; Levi Are Best Friends, Levi basically adopts ema, Levi is suprisingly good with kids, Levi is the Tough love kinda “dad”, dad levi energy, ema are orphans</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:21:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,883</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016819</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars001/pseuds/Mars001</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi was never one to care about kids. but one day he meets 3 kids who survived the fall of wall Maria, he slowly becomes a parental figure to them as he has many reoccurring meetings with them</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>297</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Nostalgia</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi thank u for reading!! This is my first time making a fic in a long time  sorry for any bad spelling/punctuation</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a warm spring day, the survey corps  came back from a mission outside the walls. Of course there were casualties and those who were injured as what happens in every other mission.  Levi sat on his horse following Erwin  and next to hange, listening to the talk of the citizens “they’re wasting our tax dollars again” “why even go outside the walls?” “All they do is bring dead bodies” he thought he would stop listening to them talk since the last time one of them pissed him off so much that he considered stepping down from his horse and confronting the rude citizen, but he couldn’t help it. Then he saw them again, those 3 kids who looked like they were around 8 or 9 and the Brown haired one that always had the biggest smile on his face whenever levi would look at him. Levi didn’t want to admit it, not even to himself, but he liked seeing them show up whenever the scouts cane back and whenever they left outside the walls. the smile on the brown haired kids face reminded him of an old friend who had been gone too soon. the dark haired girl had a tough look, Levi could tell she was the stronger one of the 2 others,  he once saw her defend the brown haired kid when he was about to start a fight with someone who was insulting the survey corps. she reminded him of himself when he was younger. Levi wasn’t one to care about kids especially some random kids who watched them leave and come back every time , but Those three gave him a sort of nostalgia, even the blonde one who looked noticeably weaker then the other two. Levi had wondered if they considered joining the scouts once they were older since they almost never missed watching them ride their horses. As Levi was passing the 3 kids he heard one of  them talk for the first time, it was the smiley brown haired boy<br/>
“Look mikasa thats captain Levi! He’s humanity’s strongest solider!”<br/>
Levi kept his face forward pretending not to pay attention to the boy, He had heard that from other civilians but the brown haired boy’s words felt somewhat different. The black haired girl, mikasa, said something in response but levi was eventually too far on his horse to hear what she had to say. Hange then shifts their horse closer to Levi’s to tell him something<br/>
“Oh look at that you have fans now!”<br/>
Hange says teasingly, Levi scoffs<br/>
Hange laughs “that girl said something that sounds like someting you would say”<br/>
“ tch, as if I care about what some  brat says about me”<br/>
“Aw come on Levi, they’re just kids”<br/>
Hange says<br/>
Even though he tries not to care Levi really did wonder what mikasa had said, hange knew him well so maybe it really was something he would’ve said if someone had told him that about someone else. atleast he knew one of their names now. I mean, he really didn’t care. But now he could put a name to a face even if it’s just one.  Levi faces forward as his horse follows erwin’s. It was a short mission, the retreat was fast as things were starting to get bad for the survey corps. There weren’t as many casualties as other missions, of course a mission with no casualties doesn’t exist.<br/>
“How’s your hand?” Hange asks<br/>
Levi looks at his right hand that was softly holding onto the reins of the horse<br/>
“It’s doing better”<br/>
“Ah that’s good, that was a close call there”<br/>
Hange says<br/>
Levi was on a titan killing streak, after he changed his blades he held it the wrong way, it caught him off guard as he sliced the nape of the titan he felt a strong pain from his right hand. The pain had gone  down by now, but he would have to be more careful next time. Yet another mission of the survey corps, hopefully they would get more knowledge out of the next mission.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A missed tea time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was an off day for the survey corps, levi and his squad did what they usually do when it was an off day, clean and train. Levi finished cleaning his office early, and gave his squad more time to finish cleaning before starting training.Then he realized he ran out of his favorite tea, which he was planning on making to pass time, so he went into town to buy some more. he walked past the merchants who were selling bread and the garrison guards who were sitting around drinking, guess there’s nothing else they could do. Then he got to the Merchant who he always bought his tea from, an old lady who once told him that her son was in the survey corps too when she saw him in uniform.<br/>
“Hello, nice to see you again!”<br/>
She said to him. While he was choosing his tea he heard a noise, like someone was arguing, a kid maybe. He looked over to see where the noise was coming from and saw the brown haired boy that he had always seen when he came back from missions. He was arguing with a group of boys, who seemed to be bothering that blonde kid. Who would’ve known he would see them again. The blonde kid gets up and runs the opposite direction from The brown haired kid, the brown haired kid keeps loudly arguing with the group of boys who were bothering the blonde kid, who knows where the blonde one went, his assumption of him being weaker then the other two was correct. The brown haired boy seemed to be someone who is stronger with his words to make up for his lack of physical fighting skills, Levi turns back around to pay the lady for his tea when he hears them get violent, it was a 3 on 1 fight with his other 2 friends nowhere to be seen and from what he saw the brown haired boy would be defenseless against them, a thought randomly came to Levi’s head “I should stop this” he thought, but why get involved with some brats fighting? He looked over at the drunken garrison guard who weren’t stopping their fight and instead encouraging them<br/>
“Get em good eren! Show mikasa that you don’t need her help!” A blonde drunk garrison guard said<br/>
Levi was annoyed that they hadn’t stopped the fight, what was the point of their job if they didn’t maintain order within the walls? and it wasn’t Levi’s  job either, all he did was come in town to get some tea. He didn’t plan on stopping a fight or watching one. The fight eventually got so rowdy that they were knocking over merchant stands, and throwing items at each other, this was a job for the garrison but they weren’t doing anything about it. He finally made a decision.<br/>
Levi walked closer to the 3 boys beating who he now knew as Eren, he wanked one of the boys backwards by the collar of his shirt and kicked him in the stomach  so hard that it even caught the drunk garrison men off guard, the bully laid on the floor grabbing his stomach on pain, his other 2 friends looked at Levi in shock, and then looked at the wings of freedom patch in his jacket which took their attention off of eren.<br/>
“Hey brats, what’s all this commotion about?”<br/>
Levi said in an annoyed tone of voice.<br/>
“Eren!” He heard a girls voice call<br/>
“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” He turned and  saw mikasa with the blonde haired kid<br/>
“Y-yeah I’m fine” eren said shocked staring at Levi.<br/>
“Uh-uhm sorry s-sir” one of the bullies friends said as he helped the injured one up<br/>
“Here you can have it back! Please don’t hurt us!” One of the other boys says frantically as he threw the loaf of bred to Levi, the 3 boys walk away as fast as they could while having their injured friends arms around their shoulders. he holds the bread and turns to the 3 kids, eren was sitting on the floor with a beaten face with mikasa and the blonde kid by his side.<br/>
“Tch. Is this what all this was about?” Levi says annoyed<br/>
He tosses the bread loaf at eren  who was staring at him amusingly just as he was about to turn around and leave<br/>
“C-captain Levi, thank you very much!” Eren says standing up with an amused tone of voice<br/>
“Tch. Stop causing trouble, for these merchants those lazy garrison are obviously not going to do anything about it”<br/>
Levi turns to make his way back to the tea merchants table to pick up the tea he put down before he instantly left to beat that kid<br/>
“Thank you sir, we won’t cause trouble next time!”<br/>
He heard a new voice from one of the 3 kids say, he assumed it was the blonde one since it was the voice of a boy. He gets to the table and picks up his tea<br/>
“Thank you very much for stopping them! Those 3 are always getting into trouble around here and those  garrison men never stop them”<br/>
The tea merchant says to Levi as he grabs his tea<br/>
“Tch. Why are they even here if they’re just going to drink all day”<br/>
“but don’t you think you were alittle too harsh on that boy?”<br/>
“No, those damn brats will never learn if nobody teaches them”<br/>
Levi leaves with his tea, as he makes his way back he passes those 3 kids again, but they were too busy talking to notice him pass by<br/>
“Eren, if they do that again get me next time”<br/>
“I can defend myself mikasa!”<br/>
“Eren, you really didn’t have to do that”<br/>
“Yes I did armin, jerks like them deserve it”<br/>
He hears them say as heads toward the training area and puts the tea in his jacket pocket . It had already taken Levi a long time to walk into town, buy tea, and stop that fight, he assumed his squad was already done cleaning by now and was training, he didn’t feel the need to hurry up his squad knew what to do and what would happen if they didn’t do it.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Thank you captain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Damn, corporal Levi really pushed us today”<br/>
Oulo says with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. Petra who was right beside him also trying to catch her breath. It was<br/>
A warm mid spring day, the sun was almost fully set and the moon was out, it was a long day of training for the Levi squad, today he made them stay longer and urged them to train harder, each of them had one on one combats with the corporal which meant they would be in a lot of pain the rest of the night leading into tomorrow. Petra grabs her survey corps jacket from the ground and<br/>
Throws it over her shoulder<br/>
“You guys are dismissed”<br/>
Levi says as he puts his own survey corps jacket back on, his squad makes their way out together<br/>
“What’s for  dinner   today?”<br/>
He hears eld ask. Levi stays behind for alittle extra training time. The moon was shinning brightly as Levi squad was close to hq , merchants were closing up shop and heading back to their houses, some were making their way into bars, and kids were saying goodbye to their friends as they head back home<br/>
“Did you guys hear that? Levi said I’m improving”<br/>
Oulo says confidently<br/>
“It looks like I’m at his level at this point maybe even higher” oulo says<br/>
“You’re not even close to his level”<br/>
Petra says breaking his confidence<br/>
“He told me the same last week” Gunther says<br/>
As the Levi squad makes their way for dinner eld notices  a small shadow from a far, he couldn’t  Tell what it was, he assumed it was just someone walking around.<br/>
“No you guys don’t understand! I-“<br/>
“Shh. No need to get so loud” eld says breaking oulos loudness<br/>
“Huuuuuh?” Oulo says trying   to sound intimidating, Petra laughs  at how hard he tried to sound like Levi.<br/>
“Hey why are you laughing!?”<br/>
The rest of the squad then breaks out into laughter at oulos failed attempt to be just like the corporal<br/>
“Um excuse me?” They hear a small voice say, they all looked at who it came from, a small blonde boy who was standing  holding a small package<br/>
“Are you guys from the Levi squad? Do you know where captain Levi is?” The small blonde boy said to the squad<br/>
“Oh yea he should be heading to the mess hall  for dinner,did you need him for something?”<br/>
Petra says in a sweet tone of voice<br/>
“I wanted to give him this, he helped us a couple days ago and i wanted to thank him”<br/>
Petra and the other 3 men look over at the small package that he was holding onto, it looked like a bag of tea<br/>
“That’s so sweet I’m sure captain Levi will appreciate that!”<br/>
Armin notices someone far away, it looked like someone who was walking toward them, it was too dark to tell who it was, Petra looks back and could tell it was Levi by the dark figure of the person. He looked like he was holding something, a jacket maybe. As he got closer he had an annoyed look on his face<br/>
“Oi, oulo you forgot your jacket again, next time I’m leaving it there”<br/>
He threw the jacket at oulo<br/>
“T-thanks Captain” oluo  says ashamed holding onto his survey corps jacket<br/>
“Corporal, this boy wanted to give you something”  Petra says putting her arm on armins shoulder. Levi recognizes armin, how did he get all the way over here?<br/>
After armin faces Levi the squad continues to make their way toward hq<br/>
“We’ll see you for dinner Captain!”<br/>
Petra says walking away with the rest of the squad.<br/>
“Um, thank you for helping us, I saw you were buying tea that day and we wanted to give you this”<br/>
Armin extends his arm out giving Levi  the package, Levi grabbed it and looked at it, it was tea, but it was  the only kind he didn’t like, it tasted like shit, but he couldn’t tell armin that or let it be known he didn’t like it. assuming he lived in the city where he first helped them out he had to walk pretty far to get out here, it might have gotten late for him and that’s why he was here at night.<br/>
“Thank you”<br/>
Levi says while head patting armin, something he hadn’t done in a long time<br/>
“You walked pretty far to get here?”<br/>
Levi asks armin, armin nods<br/>
“Where are those other 2?”<br/>
“They weren’t allowed to leave, they got into another fight”<br/>
Levi looked at the moon, it was dangerous for armin to be alone out at night, there have been murders and Kidnapping that happened around this time, maybe it would be safer if he was with the other 2 kids, but him being alone made him an easy target, and it didn’t seem like he was a good fighter since he depended on the other 2 kids to save him.<br/>
“Uhm, you’re going on another mission soon right? I’ll see you then” armin said smiling at Levi, armin was about to make his way back when Levi stopped him<br/>
“Huh?”<br/>
“It’s dangerous for a kid like you do be alone at night”<br/>
Armin looks at him confused<br/>
“Tch. Where do you live?”<br/>
Levi says slightly annoyed<br/>
“Oh I live in the city”<br/>
“I’ll walk you” he says quitely<br/>
“Next time don’t walk so far when it gets late”<br/>
“O-oh you really don’t have to sir, I’m sure you’re busy” armin  says nervously<br/>
“Let’s go”<br/>
And so they make their way  into the city, passing by drunk men who disturbed the quietness of the night and stray animals  who were walking around making small noises as they scavenge for food<br/>
“Hey, how many people leave training on the first day?” Armin asks  out of the blue<br/>
“Don’t know, never went through training”<br/>
Levi says<br/>
“Wow that’s amazing, no wonder you’re humanity’s strongest solider! my friends eren and mikasa want to join the survey corps”<br/>
As they were  walking a drunk man came up to armin and holds onto his shoulders, the strong grip of the man startled armin as he stood still in shock<br/>
“Y-you ruhmember don’t you? Ya owe me mon-“<br/>
Before the drunk man could finish his sentence Levi gives him a hard punch in face that knocks him out. He lays on the pavement and doesn’t get up<br/>
“Tch. Damn creep”  Levi says looking at the knocked out man<br/>
“Is he ok?” Armin asks concerned looking over at the drunk man<br/>
“He’s fine. He’ll just wake up with some head pain that’s all”<br/>
After that incident with the drunk man armin walks closer to Levi, he really didn’t realize how scary it was at night he was grateful that Levi insisted on walking with him, if he walked back alone he had no idea what he would’ve done.<br/>
Armin was so close to Levi that he was almost attached to his right arm. whenever armin was scared, he would hug his stuffed animals or if no stuffed animals were around he wound hug Eren or mikasas  arm, but right now he was with Levi, armin had the idea to ask Levi if he could hold his arm, but was sure a tough soldier like him wouldn’t like that and he also didn’t know him too well so instead he just walked closer to him, maybe too close, but he couldn’t help it.<br/>
armin who was now terrified is more aware of everything around him and tries not to look at the rowdy drunk men. He wished he was home already, safe and snuggled up with his stuffed bear that his grandfather got him when he was a baby. Then he hears something being knocked over in an alley they pass by and when he looks over at where the noise came from he sees three  small shadows , Armin hears a louder noise coming from the three small shadows. suddenly without thinking, he closes his eyes and grabs Levi’s arm. this caught Levi off guard, well armin  was just a kid after all, most kids are scared of shadows and sudden noises that come from them, of course Levi wasn’t like this when he was a kid. Levi looks at armin who suddenly clinged to his arm thinking of how to reassure him that the noise and shadow wasn’t that big of a deal, he was terrible at comforting people, especially a 8 year old boy, but he was going to try his best. Levi takes his left arm that was free and puts it on armins head<br/>
“It’s probably those damn cats, nothing to worry about”  Levi says trying to reassure him.<br/>
“Bu-but-” armin says shakily, Levi takes his hand off Armins head<br/>
“What,are you scared of cats?” He says<br/>
“O-of course n-not” armin says trying his best not to be scared, as much as he tried to take in Levi’s words and believe everything was ok, the rowdy drunk men and animals who only looked scary in the night kept him from believing that.<br/>
“There are scarier things in this world then animals making noise and drunk idiots, don’t you think?”<br/>
They continue walking with armin still having his arms wrapped around  Levi’s right arm<br/>
“Y-yeah you’re right, I’ve just never been out this late, I didn’t realize how scary it is” armin says still in a scared tone of voice<br/>
Levi let armin cling to  his arm for as long as he wanted to, he figured it helped him to even continue walking.<br/>
After a while Armin  lets go of Levi’s  arm finally feeling better. They only look scary at night. The drunk men will be sober in the morning and the stray animals will be wondering around the city looking for scraps trying their best to survive. Those thoughts and Levi’s words finally sank in.  as they got closer to where armin lived, Armin was eventually confident enough to lead the way, but only at a distance where he was close to Levi if he ever had to go back to him to be safe.<br/>
After a long walk armin stops in front  of a building that looked like a big house. Levi looks at the sign on the door that reads “home for kids” he realized what their situation was<br/>
“Orphan, huh” Levi says<br/>
“Y-yeah my friends eren and mikasa  live here too, anyways thank you for walking with me”<br/>
Armin says as he starts to head inside. Before armin opens to door to the orphanage he looks back and waves at Levi, Levi gives armin a small wave back as he shuts the door. It was a long way back from where he was to hq, he for sure missed dinner and everyone was probably sleeping  by now. As he was walking he thought about when he was also an orphan their age, he never thought about joining something like the survey corps  at 8 like they did, maybe if they trained and tried hard enough they could be successful in the survey corps, even the blonde one, though he would need to be trained harder then the other two. After another long walk Levi gets to survey corps Hq, as he expected the mess hall was empty, dinner was long over, he didn’t mind though, he wasn’t hungry anyways he had work to do. Once he gets to his office he sits at his desk and takes out the gift that armin gave him from his jacket pocket, he notices that there was a string going from the front to the back, he turns it around and finds a note </p><p>“Captain Levi,<br/>
Thank you so much for helping us out the other day, we’re sorry for causing trouble. Good luck on your next mission! ”<br/>
From,<br/>
Armin ,Mikasa , and Eren” </p><p>The note was in weird spaced out handwriting, as expected of 8 year olds. It couldn’t help but bring a small smile to Levi’s face. Even though it wasn’t his favorite tea he brewed himself a warm cup of it he took a small sip trying to ignore the terrible taste it had and went straight to work sorting through the papers on his desk and working in each one.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey !! This chapter was somewhat inspired by the aot game when you give Levi tea and he smiles at the player  (changed somethings up ofc 💀)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Lunchtime</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The fall Of wall Maria happens earlier here and eren dosent have titan powers yet!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sound of running feet and talking voices wakes armin up along with a familiar voice <br/>“Hey armin wake up, it’s time for lunch” eren says<br/>Armin peaks his eyes open and finds eren and mikasa standing over his bed <br/>“You slept through breakfast again” <br/>Mikasa says. Armin rubs his eyes and sits up in his bed. <br/>“Come on let’s go before the little kids hog all the dessert again” eren says grabbing armins arm and yanking  him out of bed. <br/>They quickly make their way for lunch, as he is being dragged by eren with mikasa by his side. the other kids of the orphanage gave armin a good morning. Out of the 3 of them armin was the only one who got along best with the little kids, he would help them practice writing their name and taught them how to color inside the lines, and he had been here the longest out of the three of them. Mikasa got along with the older kids, they usually had more chores and she was a huge help to them, she used to do most of these chores  while she was living with her mom and dad, and eventually with grisha and Carla who were erens parents, and now here at the orphanage. she had enough experience with these chores so she was allowed to do them even though it was for the older kids. Eren on the other hand was a lone wolf who only ever hangs out with mikasa and armin, the women running the orphanage didn’t give him too much of a hard time for it, they knew he was probably upset about his parents having been killed at the hands of titans. A lot of the kids at the orphanage were from wall Maria, but it was only the three of them that saw the colossal titan peak over the wall that day. <br/>Armin, mikasa and eren grabbed their plates of food and sat at the table nearest to where the lunch lady would be giving desert in a couple of minutes. <br/>“You got back pretty late, miss Abby was starting to worry about you” eren says stuffing mashed potatoes in his mouth <br/>“Yeah it was far away, sorry about that” <br/>Armin says grabbing his utensils <br/>“So did you give it to him?” <br/>Eren asks <br/>“ I did, and I think he liked it” <br/>“Damn,I wish i could’ve gone” <br/>Eren says mixing his mashed potatoes with his fork <br/>“captain Levi is really pretty nice, even though he looks  intimidating” <br/>Armin says To eren and mikasa <br/>“He walked you back here right?” Mikasa asks taking a sip of her juice <br/>“Huh really ?!” Eren says surprised looking Over at armin  <br/>“Yeah he did, how do you know mikasa?” <br/>“I saw you two through the window, And i was right, he is really short” <br/>Eren puts his fork down <br/>“You shouldn’t say such things about humanity’s strongest soldier!” Eren says defensively <br/>“I was just expecting him to be taller that’s all”<br/>Mikasa says <br/>“When we were walking into town a drunk man grabbed my shoulders and next thing I knew  Levi knocked him out cold, but Levi said he would wake up soon” <br/>armin then recalls  how scared he was after that. He didn’t want to hold Levi’s arm because he thought Levi would turn him down if he asked, but he did it anyways without noticing. Armin was thankful that Levi let him hold onto his arm for as long as he wanted to, for a tough cold soldier like him he didn’t expect that. <br/>“Wow that’s amazing!”  Eren says amused <br/>“One day I’m gonna be just like him!” <br/>Mikasa looks over at the lunch lady who was about to put the trays of dessert on the table, it was chocolate chip cookies, they were fresh. Mikasa needed to be the one to grab the cookies, from their previous failed attempts eren and armin weren’t good at it <br/>“I’ll get some for us this time” <br/>Mikasa says standing up <br/>“No I’m gonna get them myself!” Eren says standing up <br/>“Eren, I don’t want you starting another fight with the others” mikasa says trying to stop him. <br/>Eren ignored mikasa and went anyways, mikasa followed and so did armin. Eren pushed through the crowd of little kids, they were usually the ones to hog all the cookies leaving them with nothing, but not this time. <br/>“Make sure to share you all get one cookie”<br/>The lunch lady says in a sweet tone of voice.<br/>Those little kids were too young to understand how many they were allowed to get. Eren gently pushes one kid who dramatically falls to the ground <br/>“Eren thats mean!” <br/>Another kid says trying to help their friend up. <br/>“Erens always a meanie, that’s why miss Abby never lets him go outside” the little kid says expecting a response from eren. <br/>Eren had gotten his going outside privileges revoked way too many times already for getting into fights with these kids, he was tired of not being able to go out with mikasa and armin. He has to try his bets to keep calm,  usually he would argue with the kid and defend himself, but this time he would ignore the  dramatic kids comment . Eren got to the cookie tray and grabbed 3 cookies for himself and his friends.  he finally got them this time without having to pick a fight. Maybe armin telling him about captain Levi encouraged him to stay quiet for once. He made his way out of the crowd and saw mikasa and armin standing by their table, they had stopped following him after watching eren not argue with the kid <br/>“Look guys I got us some!” He said happily showing them the 3 cookies that he held on a plate that he grabbed . Mikasa and armin looked at him shocked, they couldn’t believe that for the first time ever eren didn’t get his outside privileges revoked because of something so small. Eren holds the cookies out and they each take one <br/>“Eren, thank you for not fighting, now we call all go outside together” armin says taking a bite of the warm cookie. Even though it was something small, for eren it was an achievement. Mikasa splits her cookie and gives the other half to eren, <br/>“Thank you for not starting a fight eren”  mikasa says giving Eren the cookie <br/>“you keep it mikasa, I got cookies for all of us to enjoy” mikasa takes back the cookie and eats it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey !! Sorry for the late update, I didn’t like how the chapter turned out so I changed some things (also spent a long time renaming this chapter lmao)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Forest spies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This ch has mentions of blood and injury !!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a warm afternoon and  The three kids who could finally go out together, were out in town looking for something to do. Mikasa passes by a merchant stand and looks at a book. </p><p> Mikasa was originally saving up money to buy her own sketchbook so she could have her own collection of her drawings, but she offered to pay for Levi’s gift.  she saved more money over time then eren and armin did, they insisted on paying equally but mikasa paid it full. Before mikasa paid for it they decided to buy the most expensive tea since they didn’t know which one Levi would want, they figured since it was more expensive it would taste better.“We could’ve chosen another one if you’d told us you were going to pay for all of it”<br/>
Armin said after she paid. </p><p> Mikasa looks at her remaining money, she would have to save up more in order to buy the sketchbook, but It was the least she could do for the captain after he stopped the fight before she could even get there.</p><p> Mikasa walks back over to eren and armin who were sitting in front of the walls of a church looking up at the sky, she figured eren was talking about killing Titans again. she sits next to eren but eren was quiet. </p><p>A group of garrison guards pass the three kids and one person breaks away from the group. “Eren, I can’t believe they finally  let you out!” The three kids look up to see hannes who was already somewhat  drunk, even though it was barely afternoon. </p><p>Hannes sits next to the kids, they smelled the faint smell of alcohol coming from hannes<br/>
“How’s life at thuh orphanage treating you so far?” Hannes asks before taking another sip<br/>
“It’s so early  and you’re already drunk” Eren says annoyed, hannes laughs “You know it eren!” He says in between his laugh.</p><p>“Shouldn’t you be protecting the walls incase the Titans attack again?!” Eren asks slightly raising his voice “We are, look” hannes points to the wall “There’s Nothing, relax eren” Eren angrily stares at the ground “How can I relax, when I can’t go home” </p><p>The regret of not being strong enough to save erens mom comes back to hannes. he had told eren before that he needed to be stronger than him. Hannes takes another drink, he looks around and is out of sight of his group “Gotta go guys, I’ll see you around” “Bye hannes” mikasa and armin say. Hannes pats eren shoulder “Hey, Take it easy eren” he says before getting up. </p><p>Armin and mikasa watch hannes as he leaves catching up with his group. Eren suddenly stands up “What’s wrong?” Mikasa asks<br/>
“Let’s go to the forest” Eren suggesting to go to the forest wasn’t all that rare, mikasa and armin figured that might as well go since they were all finally together “Ok let’s go then” mikasa says getting up.</p><p>they all make their way out of town and into the forest, it was a long walk it would take them a while to get there. After a long walk they entered the forest, it was quiet with the sound of winds slightly blowing the trees.<br/>
“Wow it’s such a nice day today” Armin says picking up a stick from the ground and then looking up at the trees “Is the creek still there?” Mikasa asks </p><p>Eren and armin forgot about the small creek they used to walk around in, the stream of the creek was so soft they they were able to stand in it without falling and the shallowness was up to their ankles.when they first arrived to the orphanage and they’d found the creek while exploring anything wall rose had to offer. it gave them a much needed smile as they splashed around in it, catching weird bugs and picking up cool shaped  rocks. “Let’s go check” Eren runs to the place where they played in the creek, mikasa and armin follow, eren suddenly stops at a two way path </p><p>“I forgot where the creek is at, do you guys remember? I’m pretty sure it was in this direction” eren says. Armin and mikasa try to remember.  </p><p>The last time they came to the creek in the forest was before winter hit, the memory of the path they used to take to get to it was foggy.<br/>
“Wasn’t it over here?” Armin points to the left  trail “Uh, I don’t know, let’s go see” And they follow to the left </p><p>It was a long narrow trail with alot of branchy trees that were overly stuck out. as they went further along the trail the tree branches hung low enough for them to have to push them out of the way while they walked. Eren saw an opening where the trees weren’t so sunken and opened to see a patch of grassy field<br/>
“I think this is it guys!” Eren says after walking for long </p><p>“I don’t think it’s here eren” mikasa says pushing a tree branch out of the way<br/>
“No I think I see something” eren used both his  hands to push more of the low hanging branches, he walks up farther and is suddenly out of mikasa and armins vision </p><p>“What’s wrong? is it there?” Armin asks walking in back of mikasa, as mikasa pushed another branch out of the way she suddenly  flinched her hand and stops “Uh mikasa are you ok?” Armin asks “Y-yeah I’m fine, I just got alittle cut” Mikasa who was in pain from the branch that cut her hand,  continues walking ducking her head so that the low branches wouldn’t poke her head </p><p>Armin and mikasa eventually make it to eren and they all stand in an small empty field that was in the middle of the forest,eren turns to mikasa and looks suprised “Mikasa your hand” eren points at mikasas hand, her right palm was cut, the cut went from under her index finger to below  her thumb, mikasa held her injured hand “I’m fine, it’ll stop bleeding” Armin  comes from  behind mikasa looks at her hand “Mikasa that’s a big cut!” Armin says suprised </p><p>Mikasa takes off her red scarf and wraps it around the cut. she hated having to use the scarf as a temporary bandage but she was going to wash it anyways. </p><p>“I guess the creek isn’t-“ Suddenly they all hear noises from far away, it sounded like people talking They all stand still and try to listen “Eren we should leave, I don’t think we’re supposed to be in this part of the forest, and mikasa got hurt” Armin looks around him nervously “Wait I hear something, I think I know where we are” </p><p>Eren makes his way out of the field and back into the opposite side of the forest, mikasa and armin follow. As they walk more the talking gets closer, eren suddenly crawls into a bush. </p><p>“Guys come look at this!” Eren says quietly from the bush “What is it?” Armin asks<br/>
“Come look” Eren avoids telling them what he was looking at through the bush.</p><p>Mikasa crawls into the bush trying not to put too much pressure on her injured hand Armin sighs and follows mikasa. </p><p>They both peak through the bush without moving it to see what Eren was looking at.<br/>
It was a group of survey corps members on a practice field, there were five people on the field, from how tired they looked they had been there for a while. </p><p>“We walked too far” mikasa whispers “Was the creek always this far?” Armin ducks his head more almost laying down on the ground<br/>
“I don’t think so, it’s been a long time since we last played in it but I don’t remember it being this far away”  </p><p>eren whispers, but he whispers louder than mikasa and armin they both shush him “Eren keep it down” mikasa tugs erens sleeve </p><p>The three kids look forward making sure nobody heard erens loud “whisper”, the five people who were on the field were doing one on one combat, but none of them noticed the three of them in the bush “I don’t think we’re allowed in this part of the forest” armin lays on his stomach supporting himself with his elbows, as he did that armin slightly shook the bush </p><p>“Armin!” Eren says in a whisper yell<br/>
“Ah I’m sorry!” Armin puts his hands over his mouth The three kids face forward again making sure nobody saw the bush shake, this time there was one person standing still </p><p>“I think they saw us!” Armin says worried<br/>
“Shh, stay still, don’t talk” mikasa extends her arm out in front of the two of them, eren and armin nod. They remained quiet until the person who was standing  continued with what they were doing. </p><p>After remaining still and quiet in the bush the person moves and walks up to a group of two people who were training one on one, armin and eren sigh of relief. “We should go before they actually catch us this time” mikasa suggests “Wait I want to see how they train”Eren says trying his best to whisper, which was better then the first time </p><p>The three of them watched the survey corps members train from the bushes. </p><p>The person who was standing still earlier steps back from the two people they were with  and stands still again, “They saw us!” Eren says in a whisper yell </p><p>The three of them scoot back from the bushes opening to conceal themselves more while still looking at  the person standing still. Suddenly the person looks over at the bush </p><p>“Oi” The three of them immediately recognized it as Levi, they couldn’t tell if he found them or if he was talking to one of his squad members. A short haired girl with strawberry blonde hair walks up to Levi “What’s wrong captain?”<br/>
She wipes sweat off her forehead “I hear something coming from that bush” </p><p>She squints her eyes trying to look deeper into the bush without getting too close to it<br/>
“I don’t see anything, it’s probably an animal”<br/>
“I heard the voice of a person,nothing like an animal” </p><p>Petra turns to Levi “Um,Have you been sleeping alright Captain?”</p><p>Levi ignores Petra and walks toward the bush<br/>
The closer he gets to it the more it shakes, it was the three of them trying to scoot back and quickly escape, but they had shaken the bush too much, it was obvious to anyone looking at the bush </p><p>mikasa who was good at making excuses for the three of them emerges from the bush prepared to defend the three of them incase they were to get in trouble with the captain, armin stands up after mikasa and eren follows. </p><p>“Tch, you guys suck at being quiet”Levi says.  “Uhm,we’re sorry sir”<br/>
Armin  tries his best to be as apologetic as possible.</p><p>“I think we walked too far and well we ended up here and I heard you training and I wanted to see” eren dusts off his hands that were full of dirt. They all step out of the bush and walk up to Levi </p><p> Levi notices mikasas scarf wrapped around her hand, the other times he’s seen her she was wearing the red scarf around her neck.<br/>
Petra comes from in back of Levi and points out the scarf wrapped around mikasas hand<br/>
“Are you ok did you get hurt?” Petra notices mikasas hand “I got a little cut that’s all” mikasa grabs her hand </p><p>“Are you sure? It looks like it’s hurting you?” Petra asks concerned “Tch, let me see” Levi uncrosses his arms Mikasa uncovers the scarf and reveals the cut, it was still bleeding but some blood around it was dried. </p><p>“It’s kind of deep, what were you guys doing?”<br/>
Petra examines the cut  “We were walking through those trees with the low pointy branches” </p><p>Levi reaches for his jacket pocket looking for something, he pulls out a row of bandage wrap<br/>
And kneels down to mikasa’s level.<br/>
he motions for her to give him her hand, he holds  her injured hand and starts to carefully wrap it around her hand trying not to put too much pressure on her already painful injury. </p><p>He tries the best he could to be gentle and as careful as possible but he was so used to  how he covers his own injuries.</p><p> just as he was about to finish he accidentally tightens the wrap making mikasa flinch and pull her hand back, mikasa grabs her wrapped hand in pain. </p><p>Levi felt guilty for tightening the warp without realizing it, now he made mikasa’s hand hurt, it was maybe even bleeding more, Petra looks at Levi surprised “Captain-“<br/>
“I’m sorry, I forgot”<br/>
Mikasa looks at her wrapped hand, even though it hurt more she understood the captain probably wasn’t used to caring for other peoples injuries. “That’s ok” </p><p>She gives her hand back to Levi so that he could finish securing the wrap. Levi was sure not to mess up this time, all he had to do was finish tying it off without hurting her more. Levi finally felt relaxed after he successfully tied it off, very softly pulling it to make sure it was secure </p><p> Levi gets back up and puts the roll of bandage tape back in his jacket pocket, still feeling guilty. “Does it hurt more?” Levi needed to make sure it wasn’t hurting too much<br/>
“Um alittle, but it’s ok” </p><p>“You guys need to be more careful where you play next time” Levi says and  ruffles mikasas hair “Don’t worry we will” eren brushes off his hands  “and Make sure you get that checked out” Petra refers to mikasa’s hand “Got it” The three kids make their way out and wave goodbye at Petra and Levi. </p><p>The two soldiers also make their way back to training grounds where the remaining squad was exhausted trying to find the energy to continue. “Let’s go, we’re supposed to meet hange soon” The squad makes their way back to HQ  they were supposed to meet hange to help assist on a titan experiment </p><p>Levi noticed that Petra seemed to talk to the kids in a way that sounded like she had been taking to younger kids for a long time “you handled that well” he compliments Petra, she chuckles “well I have two younger brothers around their age so I know how they’re like” </p><p>Petra stretches her arm recovering from training  “you did too Captain” she says trying to make Levi feel better “Tch sure, I made that kids hand worse”</p><p>Petra puts her hands on her hips “she seems strong, I’m sure she’s fine” </p><p> </p><p>________________</p><p> </p><p>Meanwhile the kids they made their way back to the orphanage to get mikasa’s injury treated properly as Petra suggested “we can continue looking for the creek, we don’t have to go back” mikasa says feeling bad for making them leave so early “you need to see miss jen so she can look at your cut” Eren says walking next to armin </p><p>Mikasa looks at her wrapped hand, there was blood slightly visible through the wrap. She appreciated the captains attempt at helping her even though it hurt more. she also noticed how concentrated he looked at his second attempt to tie the bandage off, mikasa could tell he felt bad for it. She held her scarf that she used as a temporary bandage on her other hand.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey !! Sorry for another late update I got caught in a snow storm and didn’t have a signal for a week..I also spent along time trying to figure out how to write this chapter lmao</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The ties that bind (part 1)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eren, mikasa, and armin stood staring at the bright hot flames as it devoured what used to be their orphanage.The rest of the kids of the orphanage were outside and all safe</p>
<p>Armin managed to grab what was most important to him,his book about outside the walls,didn’t have time to grab his stuffed bear his grandfather gave him the bear and now it was gone in the fire. Eren puts his hand on armins shoulder, even though eren never fully adjusted to it, the place provided him with a home after he lost his original home in shiganshima, he felt he didn’t appreciate it enough when it was still there, and now it was gone. </p>
<p>Mikasa looks over at the two of them, and then back at the burning building. She had seen this too many times already, her home being taken from her. first with her parents, then with grisha and Carla, and now the orphanage. She grabs her head in pain.she wonders what was going to happen next and where they would go.Citizens and garrison guards surround the building trying to put out the flames.<br/>
“Is everyone ok?” A caregiver asks the three kids along with the other orphan kids, armin and mikasa couldn’t answer her so eren covers for them “we’re fine” eren says to the lady. “Good, don’t get too close and stay back”<br/>
“Got it” </p>
<p>The garrison guards were handling the fire well but the flames were still devouring and some heat could be felt even from where the kids were standing<br/>
____________________________</p>
<p>Levi was sitting in the mess hall eating dinner, hange sat across from him talking endlessly to moblit about their titan experiments. Petra and oulo passed Levi from In back,walking to their table </p>
<p>“Did you see all that smoke outside?”<br/>
Oulo says to Petra  sitting down farther down from the Captain and joining Gunther and eld<br/>
“Yeah what’s the deal with that?” Petra asks<br/>
“From how far away it is I’m sure it’s coming from in town” eld says joining their conversation. </p>
<p>This immediately catches Levi’s attention, he quietly listens.<br/>
“There must be a building on fire, hopefully they got that under control” oulo says<br/>
The conversation about the smoke ended there, but Levi wanted to know more. </p>
<p>Levi leaves the mess hall and makes his way outside to see where the smoke was coming from. it was in the direction to town like how eld said. He immediately thought of the kids, the garrison probably have it under control but he wanted to make sure everything was alright himself. </p>
<p>It would take too long for him to walk so he went to the horses stalls and rode his horse to town. He rode the horse  toward  the direction of the smoke which was almost the same direction where he took armin back to his orphanage. </p>
<p>As it became more familiar Levi became more concerned, he hoped the kids were safe and far away from that burning building.  He gets off his horse and grabs the horses reins as he comes through an alley way, he finds a post to tie the reins on and walks up to the burning building at a safe distance. </p>
<p>It was their orphanage as he figured. The garrison guards and citizens eventually calmed the fire to the point where it was mostly smoke and a little bit of fire. </p>
<p>there was a big crowd of little kids who were watching the fire of their orphanage eventually calm down. Levi frantically looks around hoping  to spot the three kids, and to his far left they were there all together. </p>
<p>Levi was relived to see them there, he looks at them carefully making sure they weren’t injured. He notices he was standing next to one of the caregivers of the place but didn’t pay much attention to her since he was still making sure they were really ok </p>
<p>“Do you know them?” The caregiver next to him asks.<br/>
“I’ve met them a couple of times”<br/>
Levi says crossing his arms looking at the smoke aftermath<br/>
“You seem worried about them” she says.<br/>
A toddler picked his arms up wanting to be carried by the caregiver, she carries him and sinks his face into her shoulders<br/>
“I just needed to make sure they were ok”<br/>
“They’re strong kids, most of the kids here came from wall Maria but those three are the only ones here from shiganshima, they saw the colossal titan that day ” the caregiver says. </p>
<p>Levi had heard that the citizens of shiganshima had seen the colossal titan face to face when it peaked its head over the wall. they were the first victims of the fall, He didn’t know much about the kids all he knew about them was that they were orphans who had trouble getting along with people outside their circle , part of him did wonder where they were from and how they ended up there but he wouldn’t ask unless they wanted to tell him, but now he knew. </p>
<p>“How did this all start?” Levi asks the caregiver<br/>
“We think there was an accident in the kitchen or it might’ve been an accident from outside, we still don’t know for sure yet” the caregiver says. The fire was almost completely put out, but still somewhat active. </p>
<p>“Levi? ” Eren says walking up to Levi. last time Levi saw eren he was being a careless kid and wondering some forest, but now it was opposite. </p>
<p>“Are you guys ok?” Levi says to eren “Yeah we’re ok” Levi notices mikasa standing farther away from him and eren, She was watching the smoke die down armin was sitting on the floor next to mikasa with his hands in his face. Levi walks to the two of them. He puts his hand on mikasas shoulder, she seemed to be lost in thought until Levi snapped her out of it. Mikasa looks up at Levi “It’s better not to watch”<br/>
Mikasa nods and looks at armin. The caregiver was calling at the orphanage kids to gather around her, Eren and mikasa were about to leave but needed to get armin up to go with them </p>
<p>“Oi armin, miss Abby is calling us let’s go”<br/>
Eren pulls Armins arm trying to get him up<br/>
But armin stayed down not getting up. He was looking down and his face was covered by his hair, Levi kneels down to armins level and puts his hand on armins shoulder </p>
<p>“They’re calling you, you should go it’s better than staying here”<br/>
Armin slowly looks up still crying and shakily wipes his tears with his sleeve. armin couldn’t look up and face the burnt building, he had lost his only memory left of his grandfather in that fire along with his home. The unsureness of where he would end up next overwhelmed him. </p>
<p>Armin looks at Levi with tears in his eyes and suddenly armin wraps his arms around him sinking his face in his shoulder. Eren and mikasa were surprised to have seen armin cling to Levi, they watched Levi’s reaction not knowing what to expect back from him. Armin had suprised Levi again.Levi didn’t know how to react as this had never happened to him before. It was like the one night armin hugged Levi’s arm for comfort but this was a full hug,  he wasn’t uncomfortable but tensed up and didn’t move. </p>
<p>Levi wasn’t used to affection like this, especially from a kid. In fact the hug was so sudden Levi jerked back alittle out of habit but then remembered the type of kid armin was, he was too damn trusting to cling onto someone he only met a couple of times, but that was just the kind of kid he was</p>
<p>Levi slowly brings his right arm and wraps it around armin, he would let him be there as long as he wanted just like the night he walked him back, he was sure the caregiver would understand why he was taking so long. </p>
<p>Armin slowly breaks out of Levi’s grasp, armin wipes his tears as he finally calmed down<br/>
Then Levi hears fast walking footsteps coming from in back of him </p>
<p>“Whoa what happened here?”<br/>
He recognizes the voice as hange, he turns around to see hange looking up at the burnt building in shock. Hange looks back at Levi<br/>
“Uh is everyone ok?” Hange asks concerned<br/>
Levi stands up and faces hange. </p>
<p>“They’re fine” Hange looks over at the three kids“Tch Why did you follow me here” Levi asks “I saw you leave so suddenly, I was curious to see where you were heading to so quickly” </p>
<p>Mikasa looks back at where the caregiver and the orphanage kids were supposed to have gathered, they weren’t there “wheres miss Abby?” Mikasa asks Eren and armin look back and find them not to be seen anywhere<br/>
“Don’t tell me..” armin says softly </p>
<p>Levi looks back, the group was gone, he couldn’t believe they left without them. Levi angrily looks around,hange helps look for a group of kids and some lady. They look through alleyways to see if they might have been passing by. Mikasa eren and armin also look around for their group </p>
<p>“Did they leave us?” Eren asks<br/>
“Um, I’m sure they wouldn’t just leave you here like that, right?” Hange looks at Levi.<br/>
It had seemed they did leave them, but Levi didn’t want to accept that as an answer, the caregiver  Seemed like a sincere lady who cared about the kids. “No, why the hell would they leave them here” Levi turns to hange<br/>
“Y-yeah that’s right!” Hange puts their hand on armin and erens shoulder trying to reassure them “We’ll find them don’t worry!” </p>
<p>The five of them walk more along the area looking. After so much looking Levi came to term with the fact they were abandoned, the five of them rest at an alley </p>
<p>“Damn it, can’t believe they’d pull this shit”<br/>
Levi says to hange, the kids were standing farther away from where Levi and hange were and gathered around eachother </p>
<p>“What are we going to do now? We can’t just leave them here” Hange asks Levi  looking over at the kids.Levi thinks of solutions, the kids had already been through so much that night, Levi didn’t want them living in the streets of the city, he didn’t even let armin walk alone that night. “Those garrison soldiers are too busy with the aftermath of that fire I don’t think they can help us” </p>
<p>Levi leans back on a wall and crosses his arms<br/>
Hange scratches the back of their head trying to think of a solution.<br/>
Hange gasps<br/>
“Oh! Do you remember that little abandoned house we found? I think it’s  south from here, maybe they can stay there for now” </p>
<p>Levi knew which house hange was talking about. A couple days ago, Levi and his squad along with hange found the little abandoned house while Levi’s squad was assisting with titan experiments. the outside was covered with tall shrubs and was visibly abandoned but it was away from town and at a walking distance from a close by village. After the experiments were done that day hange needed to gather everything in one place as they had a lot of things to hold onto, so they temporarily stopped at the abandoned house to get their stuff together and sort things out before heading back to survey corps HQ. Levi only saw the inside briefly, it could probably hold the three  of them temporarily. </p>
<p>“That place is probably filthy”<br/>
“Well it’s only for tonight we can figure something out tomorrow”<br/>
Hange and Levi look back at the kids again. Mikasa and armin were sitting against a wall and eren was standing up, they looked tired and needed to rest after the incident. “Alright let’s go” Levi says getting off the wall he was leaning on. He walks toward the kids and hange follows </p>
<p>“Oi, lets go, there’s a place you guys can stay at for now” Armin and eren stand up. “R-really?” Eren asks suprised “where?”<br/>
The kids walk alongside hange and Levi who were waking on foot leading their horses<br/>
“It’s an abandoned house south from here, you guys can stay there until we figure something out” the two soldiers and three kids make their way out of town and head south </p>
<p>“what if somebody lives there already?what are we going to do then?” Hange nudges Levi. “I hope not, don’t have a clue what we’ll do if that’s the case”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This was supposed to be one chapter but it was too long for my liking lmao</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. The ties that bind (part 2)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They eventually got to the unoccupied house, Levi and hange had to move some shrubs so that they could get through. After hange peaks through the window to make sure nobody lived there, Levi forcefully opened the door and were met with the smell of dirt. “Well, uh here it is” hange looks around “it’s a lot more smaller then what I remember” </p><p>Levi pulls out a handkerchief and cleans the table. “Tch, this place really is filthy, how are they supposed to sleep the night here” eren, armin and mikasa look around the house, armin tiredly sticking to mikasa. Armin spots a room with two beds and a sofa, he lays on the sofa, giving eren and mikasa the two beds  and puts his book under it “oi,hold on , get off that” Levi says to armin when he spots him laying down on the dusty couch. Armin gets up from the couch and Levi repeatedly hits the cushions making the dirt come out of it, armin covers his mouth and nose . “This damn thing is disgusting” Levi gets up and wipes his hands, he does the same with the pillow until eventually he feels it was good enough for armin to sleep on. “There” armin Lays back on the couch. “Um thank you” armin says sleepily </p><p>Levi does the same with the two other beds preparing for them to be slept on and be free of dust for eren and mikasa, meanwhile those two were in the kitchen with hange. once Levi was done he stepped out of the room   “Cant you believe this! I was looking for this document everywhere!” Hange says holding a piece of paper and looking at it. “How could I have possibly forgotten it here?” Hange blows the dust off the document “oi, keep it down armin is sleeping” Levi says to hange “you two, the beds should be somewhat clean” </p><p>“Thank you” Eren who was visibly exhausted makes his way to the room where armin was in and mikasa follows. </p><p>“I’ll stay here for the night to make sure everything’s fine” Levi says as he takes a seat in the kitchen table<br/>
“Ah Well I guess I should head out, see you tomorrow then” hange waves at Levi and leaves, they slowly close the front door as to not make it squeak too much. </p><p>After hange had made their way out and the kids were asleep, Levi lit a single candle and found some tea for him to make to get him through the long night that was ahead of him.<br/>
He takes a sip of the tea and looks out the window. The moonlight didn’t hit that side of the house, the candle helped light up the room he was in. Suddenly he hears footsteps and a chair scooting back next to him, he turns to see mikasa who had just sat in the chair and laid her arms across the table </p><p>“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Levi asks taking a sip of his tea. Mikasa puts her head down on the table, she covers half her face with her red scarf </p><p>“How long are we going to be here?”<br/>
She says quietly as to not wake eren and armin up who were sleeping in the other room<br/>
“Until we find you guys another place to live, or if was find that damn lady and her orphanage” </p><p>Mikasa tilts her head and watches Levi put his cup of tea down taking note of the odd way he holds his cup, she had never seen anybody hold a cup like that before<br/>
“I don’t want to leave this house”<br/>
Mikasa says muffled through the scarf<br/>
“Dont you want a better place to live?”</p><p>The layout of the house had reminded mikasa of the house she used to live in with her parents.<br/>
Mikasa didn’t know why she decided to say that to Levi so suddenly or why she chose to hang out with him instead of staying in her bed, she trusted him more because of the events of that night, but she still didn’t know Levi too well, so she remains quiet. </p><p>“Aren’t you tired?You should go back to sleep”Levi says facing forward<br/>
Mikasa grabs her head with her right hand<br/>
“My head hurts really bad, I can’t sleep”<br/>
Levi figures the events of that night must stressed her out causing her headache. Levi gets up and brews a cup of tea for mikasa. it might make her headache feel better and even help her sleep, that tea had helped him with headaches too and surprisingly that abandoned house had some<br/>
“Drink this,it should help”<br/>
He places the hot cup of tea in front of her, mikasa lifts her head up to see the hot cup of tea in front of her “Uh thank you” she says shyly</p><p>Mikasa holds the cup of tea in its place with both hands wrapped around the sides of the cup feeling the warmth while trying not to put too much pressure on the hand she injured a couple weeks ago<br/>
Mikasa laid on the table staring at the steam of her tea wondering why they were abandoned, she was frustrated for not noticing the caregivers leaving, there had to have been a reason they didn’t wait for them. Mikasa had been trying to figure that out since it happened. </p><p> Levi takes a sip of his tea and the odd way he holds it catches mikasas attention again, she wondered if it was all that difficult to hold the cup the way Levi does, she secretly wanted to try it out herself.<br/>
“How’s your hand?”<br/>
Levi asks, mikasa looks at the palm of her hand and the thin bandage wrap that covered it. “It’s better” </p><p>After she feels that the cup of tea was cool enough to drink, she takes a small sip, she didn’t mind the greeny bitter taste it had as long as it helped her head<br/>
Mikasa looks over at Levi and his cup<br/>
“Why do you hold your cup like that?”<br/>
she was curious to know but also didn’t mean to blurt out the question so suddenly, she instantly regretted asking. </p><p>Levi recalls when he lived in underground  city where isabel has asked him that question. It was around the time she first joined him and furlan and still didn’t know much about Levi or furlan, she even tried to hold it that way herself but spilled the hot cup all over herself and of course she had to clean it up.<br/>
“It’s just a habit I picked up”<br/>
He gave that answer to Isabel and also gave it to mikasa. “Oh” </p><p>Mikasa turns back around and drinks more of the tea, halfway through she was starting to feel the affects of the tea, her headache almost went away and her eyelids felt heavy. after the temperature was cooler she decided to try Levi’s unique style of holding the cup. She looks over at Levi who was still holding his cup examining how his fingers wrapped around the rims and never held the cup on his palm. Then she copies him, wrapping her smaller hands around the rims of the cup, finger tips barely able to fully wrap like his did<br/>
Levi smirks at her attempt to grab it  “careful it might still be hot” She tries to lift it but immediately puts it back down </p><p>“I don’t want to spill it” she says sleepily<br/>
She puts her head down on the table crossing her arms so that she can rest her head on them and closes her eyes. Levi looks over at mikasa and makes sure she had  fallen asleep, the cup of tea must have had worked its magic quicker then he thought.</p><p>The events of that night replayed in Levi’s head. He couldn’t believe a sweet looking lady would just leave the kids abandoned after one of their many homes had been taken from them </p><p>“They’re strong kids, most of the kids here came from wall Maria but those three are the only ones here from shiganshima”</p><p>She had the nerve to tell him that just before abandoning them. Levi looks out the window again at the night sky, hopefully they could find the lady and her orphanage the next day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello!! Thank you for reading!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Found</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been 4 weeks and the kids were still at the house. The search for the orphanage had come to an  end. Levi stood in the city face to face with the caregiver from that night, she had vegetables in hand and seemed to be in a hurry, but Levi didn’t pay attention to that, he needed to talk with her no matter what and get answers </p><p>“Why the hell did you leave them?”<br/>
Was the first thing he asked her, she remained quiet staring at the floor. her quietness annoyed him “Oi answer me” the kids needed to leave that filthy house already and He needed an explanation from this woman. But her silence wasn’t helping “How are they doing?”<br/>
Levi was deeply annoyed by her question<br/>
“Why the fuck would you care how they’re doing, you’re the one who abandoned them”<br/>
“I just want to know how they’re doing“ “They’re fine” he gave her that answer leaving out any  details, no mention of the house or how the kids had been feeling this whole time. If she were to care to ask he would give her the same answer </p><p>“That’s good to hear” She says sighing “You still haven’t answered my question” Levi crosses his arms waiting her response<br/>
“They deserved better, our orphanage wasn’t that funded to begin with, we all lost so much”<br/>
“So you left them?”<br/>
“With you” she adds </p><p>There was a moment of silence, he wouldn’t understand why would she leave three of her kids with him, she barely knew him, and to trust a stranger with with kids she apparently cared about was stupid “What the hell are you talking about?Why would you leave them with me” She sighs “As much as I love these kids I want to see them move on and live happy lives with a family that cares for them,and well from what I saw, you just looked so concerned for them” </p><p>Levi went silent for a moment, he knew what the woman was getting at, but he felt he wasn’t fit to be a parent “Tch,What are you saying, I’m not going some damn father to those kids”<br/>
“Well-“Levi cuts her off “You’re coming with me to pick them up” Levi didn’t want to talk to her anymore, he just wanted to see the kids return to their somewhat normal lives“I can’t I’m sorry, we’re trying to be as small as possible and if they’re living somewhere with someone right now then there’s no reason for them to come back”<br/>
“They aren’t living anywhere, I would let them stay where they are until we found you, and now you’re here, let’s go” </p><p>“I’m sorry” she says quietly, she seemed to be thinking but had a sad expression on her face while doing so<br/>
“Please give me a week, maybe I could work something out”<br/>
“I’ll give you three  days”<br/>
“That won’t be enough”<br/>
“They shouldn’t be where they are right now, I’ll give you three days only, meet me back here by then” She frowns  “fine”<br/>
“Tch, if you don’t come back I swear I’ll find you” he says before leaving</p><p>After three days had passed she didn’t show up, Levi had a feeling this would happen, so he didn’t take the kids with him, he didn’t want to disappoint them.Levi wished those orphanages were more funded, maybe if they were the kids could go back to living in a nice home for kids with the caretakers who know how to tend to their needs.After showing up to the same spot multiple days she never met him there. He came to the conclusion that the kids might have to stay where they had been staying, and he might have to take them in. </p><p>He would’ve turned them into the military police but this situation felt somewhat familiar. In the time he’s met them he’s acted as a sort of father figure to them, and he had been pushing for them to leave with the caregiver, even though it was for the better, To him it felt like when Kenny took Levi in when he was in the brink of death and taught him how to fight but one day he left him and to this day he didn’t understand why. Even though he felt he wasn’t fit to be a parental figure to these kids He hated that feeling and didn’t want them to feel that way.On the final day, he let the kids know of the situation </p><p>“So she left us?” Armin asked  “Of course she left us” eren said angrily looking down clenching his fists “we never should’ve stayed with them” eren seemed to be the angriest out of all of them despite not liking the orphanage in the first place which suprised them both. “Are we going to stay here then? Or are we going somewhere else?” Armin asked </p><p>Levi looked off to the side, he thought of this possibility on the night of the fire where he would have to take them in, but didn’t think it would happen “sure,just make sure to keep this place clean” he unfolds his arms. And headpats armin and mikasa “got it” armin says, mikasa nods </p><p>“And you, quit throwing the blankets on the damn floor it’s filthy” Levi lightly pushes erens head as he still looked disappointed at the way the caregiver left them. Levi scans the house looking to see if it was clean enough, they don’t yet know Levi’s expectations of cleanliness and the house didn’t meet that, but he decided to let it slide for now </p><p>—————————————-</p><p> </p><p>“Who would’ve thought you of all people would end up with kids!” hange says giggling as they grab a document from their desk“whatever four eyes” hange straightens out a rolled up paper and scans over it “what did you even call me in for?” Levi questions “oh I just wanted to hear what happened that’s all” Levi crosses his arms “I could’ve told you this another day” hange takes their eyes off the document and looks up at Levi “oh right, sorry I forgot you gotta be with the kids now” That statement felt odd to Levi for some reason,it was something he needed to get used to“Tch they’re fine on their own for a while” hange adjusts their glasses “how old are they by the way? Like 8 maybe?” They said waiting for Levi to confirm “they should be” Levi shrugs, hange’s eyes slightly widen “when are their birthdays?” They hoped Levi knew “don’t know, it’s only been four weeks” he hoped hange didn’t ask anymore questions, he has already not known much about them “Well then, you got a lot of  catching up to do”</p><p>Levi heads back to the house, it was late at night, he spent a long time updating hange on what was going on and the kids should be asleep right now, he would have to enter the house quietly as to not wake any of them up. Hange was right, he did have a lot of  catching up to do if he was going to take them in, he didn’t even know their exact ages or birthdays, which he didn’t want to miss one day by accident.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hello thank you for reading!! I can’t believe the aot manga is ending already I’m so nervous for the final chapter to come out 🙃</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Mutt</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for 260 kudos !! ^^</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Levi looked at the small animal that was presented to him. “We found him in a bush crying, I think his leg is broken” eren said presenting the medium sized brown puppy to Levi. The dog who was still a puppy despite its size, wagged it’s tail with its tounge hanging out,Levi stuck his hand out in front of the dog, the dog  licks his hand and wags his tail more “it seems fine to me” eren places the dog down on the floor, he sits and doesn’t get up, the three kids sit in the floor around the dog waiting for his next move  “Can we keep him?” They all look up at Levi eagerly waiting his response </p><p>It had already been a month that went by so fast, and they were already bringing an animal in the house and wanting to keep it. Levi didn’t hate animals but him telling the kids he didn’t want them to keep it would make them believe so since it’s leg was broken “fine, Just until it’s leg recovers” Levi threw his survey corps cape over the chair of the kitchen table “did you all eat already?”  he turns to find the three kids distracted with the dog, they were half circled around it they were too distracted to give him a response, “yup” armin finally answers. </p><p>“What should we name him?” Mikasa asks. The kids throw out names and most of what they blurted were rejected, none of them seemed to suit the brown dog.“You’ll only get attached to it if you give him a name” Levi comments “but we have to give him a name if we’re going to keep him” </p><p>“I said only  until it recovers” then, he listens in on the millions of names the kids throw out and reject </p><p>“How about bear? Since he has the same fur color as a bear” after armin had suggested bear as a name they remain quiet  “I like that” “me too” the kids all finally agreed to naming the dog bear. </p><p>As Levi was about to sit he suddenly felt a small push against his leg, he looks down and the dog who the kids now named bear placed his paw on his leg, he looked like he wanted something from Levi. “Tch I knew it was ok” </p><p>____________________</p><p>Bear looks at Levi with a confused face slightly tilted head, he was sit on a pile of paper as his left foot was still recovering. Levi entered the house after ending training with his squad early because of the rain, his survey corps hood over his head drenched in water. the kids weren’t home and out in town getting food and probably got caught in the rain. </p><p>“They’re not here yet” bear wags his tail upon hearing Levi. Levi drys his shoes,as he does bear attempts to walk over to him, the makeshift cast the kids had made for him was falling down as he walked, but bear still looked excited to see him. Levi pats  his head almost the same way he does to the kids at times, bear gets excited and jumps on Levi licking his cheek repeatedly and causing a burst of energy. Levi was pushed back by this big puppy and brings him back down. he takes the fallen cast completely off the dog</p><p> “you’re just like them you know” Levi wipes his cheek and stands back up, “you and them have too much energy”  </p><p>Despite Levi showing no interest in bear and didn’t even want to keep him,he still followed him around at times when the kids weren’t home. He had no idea why the dog loved being around him, this was only a temporary home and he would be out soon. </p><p>Levi walked to the kitchen which had a smell coming from it, It was a piece of ham on the kitchen counter. Ham was more  expensive now then it was before but the kids managed to find just a little bit for a good price, they left extra from the night before. He unwraps the ham, as he does this bear places his paw on Levi’s leg keeping the opposite, broken one to his body as he smells the meat “Tch of course” bear whines wanting a piece of the ham “Ham is expensive now why would i let you have some?” bear jumps back down and sits staring intently at Levi. He sighs and looks at the ham, it was all scraps and pieces that the kids didn’t like, but could still be eaten. He cuts a small piece of ham </p><p>“This is all you’re getting” Levi reaches his arm out and bear quickly eats the piece from Levi’s hand. Bear excitingly wags his tail expecting more “I said that was it” Levi says annoyed wiping his hand, he immediately regretted giving him even one piece as bear was expecting more. </p><p> </p><p>_________________</p><p>The kids were going to buy food in town but the rain started coming down hard. They took cover under the porch of a store<br/>
“Hannes!” Eren greeted hannes as he took cover from the rain with then “hey!”<br/>
Hannes knew the kids were with Levi now but hadn’t seen them for a while “How’s life with the captain?” Hannes says as he sits on a barrel<br/>
“It’s going really good” eren answers</p><p>Mikasa nods her head in agreement, not vocal about how she really felt “how ‘bout you mikasa?” hannes turns his attention to mikasa upon noticing her quietness “I like it there” she says emotionless “it doesn’t sound like it”  eren comments “Levi is kind of..” she pauses hesitating to say what she wanted to say “he’s kind of odd” Hannes erupts into laughter slapping his knee “Huh what do you mean?” Armin asks “He sleeps so comfortably sitting up on a chair, ever since the first night” “Hah that’s a good one mikasa!” Hannes says coming down from his laughter Eren looks up and thinks about what mikasa said “Well now that you mention it he is always sitting there by the morning” </p><p>mikasa touches her scarf, part of her did feel bad for calling Levi odd even when he had been such a big help to her, it had been something she had never seen before, “but, I’m glad we’re there” </p><p>“You know, I don’t know that Captain well but its good you three are liking it there” Hannes stands up from where he was sitting on a barrel and grabs a bag that was next to it “here” he hands it over to eren “they’re fresh” eren opens the bag to find fruits, “thank you hannes!” Armin says looking inside the bag.the rain was starting to turn to a very light drizzle.<br/>
“Well I gotta get goin’” hannes pats erens shoulder “Bye!” Hannes ruffles armins hair before leaving. The kids make their way back to the house after the rain completely ended </p><p>“We’ve been out for so long, do you think Levi is back already?” Eren asks holding the small sack of fruits in his hands<br/>
“We should hurry then, what if he lets bear go?” “I don’t think he would do that, would he?” The kids arrive to the house and are taken back at what they saw when they came around the corner. Levi was wrapping bear’s healing leg with a new piece of cloth, he seemed to be concentrated while he was doing it, the same way he was when he helped mikasa with her hand injury. Levi had paid no attention to the dog, this was the first time the kids had even seen Levi acknowledge bear since the first day they brought him home </p><p>“The cast you guys made didn’t fit” he pets bear and stands back up. Bear limp ran to the kids, excited to see them, his cast was tighter and more secure then the one they made.<br/>
“Whoa this one is a lot better” armin pokes at the cast. </p><p>“I gave him those scraps of ham you left” eren look over at the unwrapped paper where the discarded pieces of ham once were, most of which was gone, before they left there were only scraps and pieces, that they were going to give to bear anyways but Levi beat them to it. Eren puts down the sack of fruits on the counter “hannes gave us these” he says to Levi, he empties the bag on the counter, most of these fruits were apples and peaches. </p><p>Even though the rain had stopped thunder was still heard, suddenly a loud thunder erupted scaring bear. “Whoa that one was really loud!” Eren says looking out the window as he continues taking the fruits out. Levi felt bear’s shaky leg touching his, he looks down at bear who was looking up at him, Levi pets bear’s head hoping he would relax, but he was still shaken by the loud thunder </p><p>“I think he wants you to carry him” eren said looking at bear “Tch, if that will make him get off my leg” Levi picks up bear and holds him awkwardly, avoiding touching his healing leg. Eren smiles “I think that made him feel better” bear was shaking less in Levi’s arms “I’ve never seen you carry bear before” eren says as he washes an apple.</p><p>Levi covered up the fact that he was enjoying carrying bear, he was warm and since he had lived in the house his fur had grown a lot more making him somewhat fluffy. Mikasa trained him so that he only went to the restroom outside and it seemed to have worked, bear while in recovery did perfectly with being in the house. “You guys can keep him” Levi suddenly says petting bears head, eren drops the apple he was about to bite into “really?!” He excitingly turns to Levi “sure” eren runs to mikasa and armin “did you guys hear that!?” He says as he is running </p><p>The thunder had completely gone away and bear wasn’t shaky anymore, Levi puts bear down, he walked with his new cast to where eren was running to. Levi got used to the company of bear, he wouldn’t mind if he stayed for longer.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The idea for this chapter was a lot better in my head….</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>